Collins provides an uplifting narrative about how a same-sex romantic partnership is validated by the government and comes to hold a more respectful and comfortable place among friends, family, and the larger community. Setbacks are setbacks. Wins are wins. Hopes and fears are clear.
Strozier’s deep dive into the relationship between Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed is powerfully persuasive in showing that not only was it life-affirming for Lincoln but that it was more important and more intimate than his relationship with Mary Todd, or any woman, at the time. This is a hugely consequential shift in the perception, place, and power of the love between men in Lincoln’s life.
While Downs adds to the historical record detailed information about community and religious groups working with gay men in prison, his main objective in Stand By Me is to show how all of these sites of community formation, even those outside of urban areas, were part of gay liberation. This is his book’s greatest argumentative strength.